Winchester College Houses

[pianomama]

Hi , we need to register our DS with Win Col but have no idea which house to apply to? DS is very musical (will be going for music scholarship) but not very sporty. Any suggestions? Many Thanks

I only met two Housemasters at Winchester. I thought Dr Cullerne was fantastic and would recommend him. Some houses are known for being more musical and some houses are nearer to the music building so that may help you to narrow it down.

Thanks! Any idea which are "more musical" ? Probably more important then the distance from the actual building .

I wonder if musical or sporty HM really matters. All houses are equipped for shared practice rooms for musical instruments, etc. My DS is not very musical, so I may have missed when we visited houses.

We tends to focus on whether DS gets on with HMs regardless their background and subject. I'm sure you'd see it instantly when you visit them with your DS.

As you know, unlike Eton, individual HM in WinCol takes exams for conditional offer one by one. Exam papers sounds to be bog standard (mayby I'm wrong), but interview goes very differently house to house if not person to person. Some have friendly chat over any subject or hobbies, mini verbal test with A-level standard questions (to see how boys stretch their knowledge logically), or even go for metaphysics of philosophical ones. You may want to ask HM about their test methods.

We visited three, including Bramston's (Dr Collerne). He was great and we also find other HMs are equally excellent. Then the rest is personal preferences here and there. Because of that, bear in mind people can have quite different opinions about each house, but do not prejudice before you visit. You never know you may be the one with favourable impression.

Some houses are quite a walk from the school and the boys walk back and forth about 4-5 times day. If you're in the two furthest from the school there are times when you need to be a quick change artist otherwise you'll miss out on food/drinks or be late for lessons. Also if your DS gets the "sweat" of picking up the mail everyday its a bit of a walk. Not that this should put you off they have other very positive aspects that counter balance this just remember to supply an umbrella coat and I understand some use scooters although not when up to books (lessons).

Thanks very much for you input - much appreciated !

I think it's also important to pick a housemaster who has a similar interest to your son when it comes to WC pre-test. This is because often the interview is more biased towards the teachers interests and if the child is not scientific then he may not be able to show how strong he is in the humanities if the science master is asking him about the universe etc. In some ways that is the downside of the application system because I wanted my boys to have a housemaster with differing interests as I feel this broadens their horizons, but my son's experience was very positive and on the whole I think it has the best application system.

Ditto, colleger. It is important how DS get along with HM, not the subject. Foe WinCol, conditional offer is mainly down to individual HM, and their point of interests in selection tends to be important as long as DS is above standard in WinCol's general guideline.

My DS had very interesting interview, asking about communications with aliens. It may sound strange, but I found it so brilliant way to judge individual's own thoughts and logics.

DS was taken on a tour of the House and was being interviewed without him realising it. They would stop and look at a picture of the solar system and the Housemaster would scratch his head trying to work out how far this would be from that and DS piped up with a formula to work it out followed by other random facts on the planet. If DS2 had been asked the same question then he would have failed miserably. DS2 did have an interview with a Chaplin though at another school and they chatted about choral music for 15 minutes. Had this been DS1's interviewer then it would not have one down well and DS1 would have refused to go to the school!

Well , post modernism, metaphysics, astronomy ,alien communications..I hope poor DS is not expected to understand their Notions as well :) .
Thank you all again for sharing , hope will be able to describe what happened at our interview..

This may well be a little late...

You may wish to ask or find out more on the followings:

1. Whenever a new HM arrives, he gets a renovation allowance to upgrade his house.
2. I do not know what the contract term is for HMs, but having a new HM arriving in the exams years can disrupt continuity and style for some boys. Some HMs have been know to warn prospective parents about contract expiration within the five years of the new boys' stay. I guess it may be worthwhile asking those HMs with longer than six years in charge.
3. College has a new Master in College this Sep who happens to be also a biologist (same as current MiC)

we are trying to get our elder boy into WinCol, entrance 2016 - but we are doing it from the continent, so it is all rather DIY. Where can one get old winchester entrance papers? I have been trawling the web, but found not much.

I'm assuming you're talking about the entrance exams sat in the summer before starting in September, contact the admissions dept they will send you some past papers.

Hello Rahk - just ask WinColl for past papers - we have got 2012 and 2013 papers for our son who has a firm place for 2015. Registrar was very helpful and emailed the pdfs to us by return. Details on website - Kirstie is the contact there. Excellent service, then again, it is WinColl! HTH!